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OK first thing I would do is ensure you have a full complete backup before you move platforms.

Then you need to work out what your organisation requires in terms of how far you would want to be able to go back to.

For example if you needed to go back 5 years then I would always suggest keeping that data and that media along with the latest possible copies of the original software and updates should you need to ever go back to it, lock it away & throw the key. If possible just run the 2 packages on the same server if your licensing permits, I know you may want to just get rid of it but it might just save you one day, plus as long as its not running jobs it wont be taking up and server resource so just leave it there. From this point, start working on your new solution ensuring you are getting reliable backups and more importantly test the backups, do a few test restores of your critical data.

As we added servers to the new backup we would discontinue backup of each such server on the old backup. In both cases we do D-to-D-T, with 30 days worth of data on disk. After all backups on the old backup were 30+﻿ days old (meaning we have at least 30 days' worth on the new backup) we would clear the old backups from disk. As for tape, our retention period for tapes is up to two years, therefore we have no choice but to retain the old backup software such that we can access that tape data, if necessary.

Also, we want to retain the old software *anyway*. We have already found it handy to be able to fall back on using the old software in cases where, for particular servers, the new backup had some issues we wanted to work out. So, while such servers weren't being backed up by the new backup we could have the old backup doing them. This works well for files and folders, and for versions of Exchange and SQL Server that aren't newer than what the old software knows how to work with.

Bottom line: we'll keep the old backup software running on a less capable server that allows us to access the old tapes for two years, and lets us backup to it in the event of maintenance issues on the new backup software.